Road Trip
by Whipper
Summary: Lex and Lucas are going on a road trip. Preslash ClarkLex.


**ROAD TRIP,**  
written by Whipper 

I sneaked a look at my brother. Pale and bald, with a blank expression on his face. The silence wasn't quite comfortable, probably never would be between the two of us, but it wasn't too bad either. Still, I was becoming bored with it. I was high on adrenaline from the events that had taken place just a few hours ago. Being shot right in the head, even if it was just with blanks, had turned out to be an... exciting experience, to say the least. Russian Roulette had never been a favorite of mine before but now I was beginning to wonder if maybe I had been to quick to judge the game. 

"So," Lex finally broke the silence with a slow drawl, as if he had somehow read my mind and realized how edgy I felt. "Where are we heading?" 

"Chicago, I think. Although I'm not really in a hurry." 

A small smile graced my brother's thin lips and I felt something that resembled pleasure at it's honesty. I hadn't been given a lot of that from either of my two new family-members. 

Lex was shivering slightly in his white shirt but then he had looked cold the entire night. Lionel had told me that my older brother was weak. Too emotional and too sensitive. Apparently it had had something to do with his mother dying, becoming bald when he was just a kid and whatnot. I had never had a real mother, never had a real home and I still wasn't a weakling. Although now I was beginning to suspect that Lex wasn't either. 

Lex Luthor didn't strike me as a weak person. He was a survivor, I was sure of it. That farmboy had told me so earlier and now it would seem that he had been right. 

"So... you have any decent CDs in this pretty, little car of yours?" 

"Press play," was Lex's answer, so I did and music blared out of the speakers. 

I relaxed back into my seat with a content sigh. I'd always liked being on the road, especially at night and especially with music filling my head. It made me forget things. Briefly, I wondered if Lex felt the same. Sneaking another look at the man sitting behind the wheel, I thought that he just might. Lex's eyes were fixed on the road, one hand holding the steering wheel lightly while the other reached out to change the track on the CD-player. No fancy leather-gloves this time, just thin, pale hands. 

I decided that I liked it better. Lex did bare skin very well. 

"You okay, Lucas?" 

I turned in the seat, rested my left cheek against the cold leather and focused on my brother. Hoping that it would make him nervous, maybe even make the mask slip a little. Lex did vulnerable very well too. I remembered the scene in the study a couple of days earlier but too well. That look of hurt realization on his face as he had understood my betrayal. It had been... pretty. Lionel, I was sure, had enjoyed it even more than I. 

But, as far as I was concerned, the best part was that Lex had just thrown himself into the game again. Being a player myself, I had to respect that in a man. 

"Yeah," I told him. "Just fine." 

A small amused smile before the face went blank again. 

"What do you think our Dad is doing right now," I asked. Licked my lips to prevent myself from smiling as I saw Lex wince as the word "dad" was used. Just like Lionel had. Those two thought they were on the top of the food chain, but none of them were as invincible as they thought themselves to be. "Plotting to kill me? Or too busy being proud of his two baby sharks?" 

"Probably both at the same time. Or maybe he's too busy leaking the story about the miracle to the press." 

Lex seemed really bothered by Lionel's lies about his blindness. More so than he had about being thrown out of his home. I couldn't understand his anger at all, I thought it was quite a grand plan myself. I was even considering using it myself sometime. People took liberties when they thought no one was watching. Maybe that was what disturbed Lex so much. 

A picture of Lex giving old Lionel the finger or maybe even waving a pink tongue at him almost made me laugh out load. But I didn't say anything at all, just read the next road sign. It confirmed what I had already been suspecting for a while 

"This is not the way to Chicago." 

"No, it's the way to Smallville. I thought you might like to pick up what you bought during your and daddy's... honeymoon phase." 

"I'm not that much of a packrat.," I told him with a small smile. "But still, yeah. There's some things I'd like to take with me." 

He looked at me, really looked at me, for the first time since we got into the car. 

"If you need money, Lucas-" 

"If I need money, I know how to get it. But my good leatherjacket is in your room and there's this book that I'm in the middle of..." 

As I had hoped, he laughs. No that terrible sound of earlier, when he laughed with a gun poking him in the back of his skull, but a real laugh. One that I imagined only a few people had ever heard. It made me feel like a member in a very exclusive club. 

"So, how fast can this thing get us to Smallville?" 

"A dare?" 

"If you're not too much of a chicken-" 

Normal brother-talk, stuff I thought I'd never do. But I didn't grieve for all the lost time because I knww that even if me and Lex had grown up together we would still have ended up hating each other. Lionel would have made sure of that. Lex would probably be dead in that alternate reality. A bullet in that fragile, bald head of his. Suicide. Although it was just as likely that I would have given him a helping hand. 

I wouldn't have been able to help myself. Being a bastard is in my nature. 

Lex was going in over 60 mph and it felt nice. He was a good driver, in control over his car... I had no problems understanding just why he liked to be on the road so much. Everybody needed to feel that they control over at least one aspect of their lives. And well, since I could easily imagine that Lionel had pretty much ruled Lex's entire world with an iron fist until pretty recently, driving like this had probably been one of the few things Lex had always had one hundred percent control over. 

_ "I want to be clean, I want to be whole, I want revenge, I want control I want to give up, I want to give in; destroy all I have been I want to be cruel, I want to be cold, I want a chance to sell my soul I want to break out, I want to dive in; to lose myself in sin..." _

My brother's mouth was moving slightly, following the lyrics word for word, although I couldn't hear as much as a whisper from the person next to me. 

"Are you a terrible singer or just very shy?" 

A whiplash turn of the bald head and a large grin. Lex was high on driving and it pleased me to be able and see my brother like that. Made me feel like maybe slipping Lex a funny pill, later when my life didn't depend on his driving abilities. Although, I mused, Lex probably had plenty of experience of driving while high. 

"There are various reasons," Lex drawled with a small smirk, "for why I don't sing, little brother." 

I decided to ignore the cryptic answer. 

"I don't recognize the singer," I offered instead, in ways of continuing the conversation. 

"They were before your time, Lucas. Before mine too, for that matter." 

"You make it sound like you're thirty-two rather than twenty-two. Sure, you're bald but that doesn't make you any older than your actual age, right?" 

A self-conscious hand traced the top of Lex's hand and there was another small smirk. I high-fived myself mentally, happy to have found a beginning of an Achille's heel. Low self-esteem. Color me so not surprised. 

"No, I suppose it doesn't," Lex agreed and turned his eyes back on the road. "Twenty-two, going on a hundred. Although there's nothing new about that. Story of my life, to use a cliché." 

"Earlier I told Clark you were miserable but I didn't really think I was right." 

"I'm not miserable, Lucas. Far from." Blue eyes revealed nothing as he continued; "What else did you and Clark talk about?" 

"You mean, except for you?" 

As expected, Lex didn't really answer me. 

"He was jealous of me," I continued. "Why?" 

"I didn't notice." 

"You weren't paying attention. Answer my question?" 

"I think it was you who weren't paying attention." A short pause. Lex's face was impassive but the engine of the sports car growled, as if warning me to thread carefully. "Clark Kent has no reason to be jealous of you." 

"I don't think he knew that himself. Maybe you should tell him." 

"I'm not quite sure what you're trying to tell me here, Lucas." 

"Nothing. Just... making conversation." I took a look out of the window. We would be in Smallville in just a couple of minutes. "So... will we be making a stop by the Kent farm before we take off for Chicago?" 

"Why would we do that?" 

Lex had, apparently, decided to play along with me. 

"Well..." I flashed him a sharky smile. "I figure since the Kents took you in when you were all poor and homeless, the least you own them is to tell them that they won't have to feed you tomorrow. Or search through Clark's clothes to find you fitting hand-downs." 

Once again Lex refused to answer but I was willing to bet we'd find ourselves just outside the Kent's farm in just an hour or two from now. Depending, of course, on how long it took for me to pack my shit. I decided to hurry. 

THE END 


End file.
